Crescent Connection Road Race
Saturday's race was SO amazing! We had a blast. The weather was perfect. The sunset was sweet, right over the skyline of New Orleans. The route was over the Crescent City Connection Bridge downtown (pic below) that crosses the Mississippi River right near the convention center. 
It was perfect. We started around 6:30 pm and the thing that I didn't expect and wasn't used to was the incline and decline of the bridge. 3 of the 4 miles were on an incline or decline. And most people think, oh well a decline is easy to run on. Only the incline is what is tough. But I learned years ago through EBAG (East Bayou Adventure Group) that a lot of time, the decline can be harder to run on than the incline. And it wasn't too severe of an incline and decline b/c it was over 3 miles, so it didn't knock a ton of time off my pace, but it wasn't definitely different than the terrain I'm used to running on in River Ranch.
We arrived in New Orleans for lunch, went to Cafe East which was a Chinese, upper-scale joint. None of us really knew what to not eat. We all new that pasta was the thing to eat before a race or game, but we were at a Chinese restaurant, we were debating what NOT to eat. And both my brother Michael and I, after the race said, yeah we ate the wrong thing. Haha. Lunch was great, but don't eat Chinese the day of a race. Haha.
After lunch, my brother (who's lived in N.O. for I think over 4 years now) drove us around and showed us all the damage from Hurricane Katrina. Amazing. I was in N.O. about 4 weeks after Katrina and it really hit home seeing it yourself. Yeah you see it on the news and you see the pics, but there is nothing like standing on the mud-covered street looking at house after house after house after house that is just ruined. Cars flipped over. Water lines on houses up to 15 feet off the ground. AND, it's been a year and there is still a TON of cleanup left. I could be WAY off, but just from looking at what I saw, it looked like less than %25 of N.O. is back up and functioning.
After the tour, we crashed at my brother's house and then went to the race. I never heard an official count, but there had to be over 300 people there. My game plan was to just run it. Yeah, push it as hard as you can, but I wasn't shooting to get in the "top whatever." I wanted to just set a good pace from the get-go and maintain it all the way through, and then push it hard the last half mile. And that's pretty much how it went.
Here's my splits:
Mile 1 – 7:05
Mile 2 - 7:59
Mile 3 - 7:53
Mile 4 - 6:58
Total - 29:56
We didn't hang long after the race b/c we had a 2-hour drive ahead. I don't have a clue what place I came in. There had to be at least 20-30 people in front of me. It's always humbling when the guy who looks to be in at least his 60s passes you up a mile into the race and you never catch him. And I was forewarned by a couple to make sure I didn’t over-push at the beginning b/c people always take off from the finish line and end up having to stop b/c they didn’t pace themselves. There were a few people that I passed that did that, but not many. I tried mainly to just enjoy the run and treat like it was an ordinary run like I’d just left my apartment and run through river ranch. I think I had a smile on my face for about half the race. I was just enjoying the sunset and keeping my pace.
And props to my brother for running. He’d just started running in the last couple of weeks and most people wouldn’t touch a 4-mile race being new to running. He didn’t hesitate to do it, and he finished well. Being an amazing runner was irrelevant, it was just fun hanging with everyone and being out there. I’ll post in the future when there is another race wether in Lafayette, or close to it. Just going out and being out there is a blast!
It was perfect. We started around 6:30 pm and the thing that I didn't expect and wasn't used to was the incline and decline of the bridge. 3 of the 4 miles were on an incline or decline. And most people think, oh well a decline is easy to run on. Only the incline is what is tough. But I learned years ago through EBAG (East Bayou Adventure Group) that a lot of time, the decline can be harder to run on than the incline. And it wasn't too severe of an incline and decline b/c it was over 3 miles, so it didn't knock a ton of time off my pace, but it wasn't definitely different than the terrain I'm used to running on in River Ranch. We arrived in New Orleans for lunch, went to Cafe East which was a Chinese, upper-scale joint. None of us really knew what to not eat. We all new that pasta was the thing to eat before a race or game, but we were at a Chinese restaurant, we were debating what NOT to eat. And both my brother Michael and I, after the race said, yeah we ate the wrong thing. Haha. Lunch was great, but don't eat Chinese the day of a race. Haha.
After lunch, my brother (who's lived in N.O. for I think over 4 years now) drove us around and showed us all the damage from Hurricane Katrina. Amazing. I was in N.O. about 4 weeks after Katrina and it really hit home seeing it yourself. Yeah you see it on the news and you see the pics, but there is nothing like standing on the mud-covered street looking at house after house after house after house that is just ruined. Cars flipped over. Water lines on houses up to 15 feet off the ground. AND, it's been a year and there is still a TON of cleanup left. I could be WAY off, but just from looking at what I saw, it looked like less than %25 of N.O. is back up and functioning.
After the tour, we crashed at my brother's house and then went to the race. I never heard an official count, but there had to be over 300 people there. My game plan was to just run it. Yeah, push it as hard as you can, but I wasn't shooting to get in the "top whatever." I wanted to just set a good pace from the get-go and maintain it all the way through, and then push it hard the last half mile. And that's pretty much how it went.
Here's my splits:
Mile 1 – 7:05
Mile 2 - 7:59
Mile 3 - 7:53
Mile 4 - 6:58
Total - 29:56
We didn't hang long after the race b/c we had a 2-hour drive ahead. I don't have a clue what place I came in. There had to be at least 20-30 people in front of me. It's always humbling when the guy who looks to be in at least his 60s passes you up a mile into the race and you never catch him. And I was forewarned by a couple to make sure I didn’t over-push at the beginning b/c people always take off from the finish line and end up having to stop b/c they didn’t pace themselves. There were a few people that I passed that did that, but not many. I tried mainly to just enjoy the run and treat like it was an ordinary run like I’d just left my apartment and run through river ranch. I think I had a smile on my face for about half the race. I was just enjoying the sunset and keeping my pace.
And props to my brother for running. He’d just started running in the last couple of weeks and most people wouldn’t touch a 4-mile race being new to running. He didn’t hesitate to do it, and he finished well. Being an amazing runner was irrelevant, it was just fun hanging with everyone and being out there. I’ll post in the future when there is another race wether in Lafayette, or close to it. Just going out and being out there is a blast!
wow dude, that was a really good race for you. Those times were pretty good in my eyes. It is really cool that you got to run over that bridge. Was there car traffic? If yes...did you feel the bridge swaying?
Once again congrats on the race. That goes for Michael too.
Posted by
scott |
9:27 PM
There wasn't any traffic. They closed off an entire road so there were no cars even close to us.
Posted by
Sean Walker |
11:01 PM